Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Dear Supporter, It is unacceptable that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is failing in their obligation to veterans. In recent months -- thanks to the efforts of CVA and others -- the media has finally helped expose many of the inefficient, ineffective, and stagnant methods at VA. Yet, despite this heightened awareness, the problem is still massive. Consider this:* Roughly 775,000 veterans currently have claims in waiting at the VA.* Roughly 500,000 veterans currently have been waiting over 125 days for a resolution. To keep the pressure on VA and the White House for accountability, tomorrow at 10:30amET Concerned Veterans for America will deliver our VA reform petition -- signed by over 26,000 Americans -- to the President at the White House. If you live near Washington DC,join us! We will meet in the Southeast quadrant of Lafayette Square across from the north lawn of the White House at 10:30amET.

If you live elsewhere, you can still participate! Later in the evening veterans and volunteers from around the country will join together to make phone calls directly to veterans across the country.

Using cutting edge telephoning technology, our volunteers will patch through those veterans phone calls directly to the White House. Our efforts will afford veterans from across the country the opportunity to make their voices heard, and demand action from the President. Sign up here to make phone calls.

Tomorrow will be a great day, an opportunity for thousands of Americans to demand reform at VA and a better future for veterans. Join our nationwide effort to fix the #VABacklog, and sign up to become a CVA volunteer HERE.

President Obama's claim that the Department of Veterans Affairs is "turning the tide" on backlogged disability claims is premature because the costly push to bring the numbers down is unsustainable and could doom those seeking benefits to years-long waits in appeals, according to veterans' advocates.

Drops in both the number and percentage of disability claims considered backlogged because they are more than 125 days old are real. But they have come at a high price in mandatory overtime and accuracy, representatives of veterans groups say.

There also are worries that the VA is using statistical or administrative tricks to bring down the numbers by changing what is counted and shifting staff from other critical areas such as appeals.

"They really are struggling to try and make it seem like they're making progress, and I think they are making some progress," said Jerry Manar, deputy director for national veterans' services at the VFW.

"They're going to claim victory at some point, but there's still going to be a whole lot of veterans out there waiting for some or all of their benefits," Manar said.

The backlog was defined by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki shortly after he took office in 2009. He vowed that all claims tied to military service would be processed within 125 days with 98 percent accuracy by 2015.

Now the numbers are dropping. The most recent report shows there are 479,926 backlogged claims, about 62.6 percent of the total.

The downturn was well timed for the president, who spoke again at the DAV convention earlier this month and repeated his promise to fix the problem. The backlog dipped below 500,000 cases on the same day the president spoke for the first time since October 2011.

"After years when the backlog kept growing, finally the backlog is shrinking," Obama said. "And we are not going to let up until we eliminate the backlog once and for all."

One quick fix announced in May was to require about 10,000 claims processors to work at least 20 hours of overtime per month. That is expected to cost about $44 million through Sept. 30, when the requirement ends, according to VA.

That raises questions about whether the overtime was a temporary fix to respond to political pressure, said Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

"I am skeptical as to whether the VA's current strategy is a sustainable one," Miller said. "My main concern right now is that VA's primary focus is quelling the backlash about the backlog, rather than providing long-term, sustainable solutions to the systemic issues that created the backlog in the first place."

VA also prioritized its oldest claims, clearing 65,000 that were more than two years old with an initiative that began in April. Agency officials, who would not agree to an on-the-record interview, say about 70 percent of the claims were approved, which is comparable to approval rates on standard claims.

But that number is misleading, according to veterans' representatives. If a veteran has multiple medical conditions, and the VA grants benefits for only one, the agency considers the claim to be approved and closed.

That applies even if the major disabling condition is rejected or unresolved, and a minor ailment is approved. It looks good in agency statistics, but leaves the veteran no better off, said Joe Violante, legislative director for DAV.

"It doesn't solve anything," he said.

It might make matters worse because hasty rejections force veterans into an appeals process that typically takes three or four years, said Glenn Bergmann of the law firm Bergmann & Moore, which represents veterans with disability appeals.

"They are playing a numbers game," Bergmann said of VA. "They get credit for making a decision."

The number of appeals is creeping up. In March, about 250,000 cases were on appeal. The number is now more than 254,000. Veterans with the oldest claims rated under the fast-track initiative have a year to appeal, so a future spike is likely, advocates say.

Appeals are not counted as part of the backlog.

Also, in its push to lower the backlog of disability claims, VA has transferred experienced staff who would normally handle appeals to processing initial ratings, meaning delays will get worse, said Ron Robinson, president of the AFGE union that represents VA workers in Columbia, S.C.

"The appeals, nobody is working those," Robinson said. "Those are just sitting there."

Then in April, VA began highlighting the smaller number in orange, for the first time defining that as the relevant number in terms of Shinseki's pledge to eliminate the backlog.

Now the weekly reports no longer list the larger figure, which included things like claims for survivors' benefits after a veteran's death. That number is listed deeper in the report: almost 41,000 claims pending and 26,000 backlogged.

It is not highlighted in orange or counted in the backlog.

"The numbers are highly suspect," said Darin Selnick of the group Concerned Veterans For America. "Anytime VA releases numbers it's suspect because VA has a history of fudging the numbers."

Even if VA is being honest, and the quick fixes are sustainable, having a half-million veterans with backlogged claims, and another quarter-million with appeals, is still "atrocious," said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

"This is not a time to start spiking the ball or saying we're turning the corner," Tarantino said. "Doing slightly better is not the same as doing good."

A crew of two pilots and two weapon systems officers were on board. All four members of the aircrew safely ejected with some injuries.

"We are actively working to ensure the safety of the crew members and have sent first responders to secure the scene and work closely with local authorities at the crash site," said Air Force Col. Kevin Kennedy, the 28th Bomb Wing commander.

"Right now all of our thoughts and prayers are with the crews and their families," Kennedy said.

Air Force officials will conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the accident.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Veterans who took Larium need to be aware of these major side affect now being attributed to Larium.

From NYT

Crazy Pills

By DAVID STUART MacLEAN

CHICAGO — ON Oct. 16, 2002, at 4 p.m., I walked out of my apartment in Secunderabad, India, leaving the door wide open, the lights on and my laptop humming. I don't remember doing this. I know I did it because the building's night watchman saw me leave. I woke up the next day in a train station four miles away, with no idea who I was or why I was in India. A policeman found me, and I ended up strapped down, hallucinating in a mental hospital for three days.

The cause of this incident was drugs. And these drugs had been recommended to me by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I had been prescribed mefloquine hydrochloride, brand name Lariam, to protect myself from malaria while I was in India on a Fulbright fellowship.

Since Lariam was approved in 1989, it has been clear that a small number of people who take it develop psychiatric symptoms likeamnesia, hallucinations, aggression and paranoia, or neurological problems like the loss of balance, dizziness or ringing in the ears. F. Hoffmann LaRoche, the pharmaceutical company that marketed the drug, said only about 1 in 10,000 people were estimated to experience the worst side effects. But in 2001, a randomized double-blind study done in the Netherlands was published, showing that 67 percent of people who took the drug experienced one or more adverse effects, and 6 percent had side effects so severe they required medical attention.

Last week, the Food and Drug Administration finally acknowledged the severity of the neurological and psychiatric side effects and required that mefloquine's label carry a "black box" warning of them. But this is too little, too late.

There are countless horror stories about the drug's effects. One example: in 1999, an Ohio man, back from a safari in Zimbabwe, went down to the basement for a gallon of milk and instead put a shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger. Another: in Somalia in 1993, a Canadian soldier beat a Somali prisoner to death and then attempted suicide. "Psycho Tuesday" was the name his regiment had given to the day of the week they took their Lariam.

Lariam is no longer sold under its brand name in the United States, and our military finally caved in to pressure and stopped prescribing it to the majority of its soldiers in 2009. But some are still getting it; lawyers for Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who has pleaded guilty to killing 16 Afghan civilians in 2012, said he had taken the drug. And the generic version is still the third most prescribed anti-malaria drug here, with about 120,000 prescriptions written in the first half of this year.

Make no mistake: mefloquine does a good job protecting against malaria (and unlike some other anti-malaria drugs, it can be used during pregnancy and has to be taken only weekly). It just works at a significant risk, the full extent of which we're still discovering.

The new F.D.A. warning advises people taking mefloquine to call their doctor's office if they experience side effects. Fine advice, except that by the time most people — business travelers, Peace Corps volunteers, students studying abroad — start to notice the side effects, they are thousands of miles away, frequently out of cellphone service.

Most worrying of all, the announcement notes that the drug's neurological side effects — dizziness, loss of balance or ringing in the ears — may last for years, or even become permanent. I suspect that it's only a matter of time before that black box tells us that the psychiatric effects may become permanent too.

More than a decade has passed since my last dose of Lariam, and I still experience depression, panic attacks, insomnia and anxiety that were never a part of my life before.

We have a generation of soldiers and travelers with this drug ticking away in their systems. In June of last year, Remington Nevin, a former Army preventive medicine officer and epidemiologist, testified in front of a Senate subcommittee that he was afraid that Lariam "may become the 'Agent Orange' of our generation, a toxic legacy that affects our troops and our veterans."

Science is a journey, but commerce turns it into a destination. Science works by making mistakes and building off those mistakes to make new mistakes and new discoveries. Commerce hates mistakes; mistakes involve liability. A new miracle drug is found and heralded and defended until it destroys enough lives to make it economically inconvenient to those who created it.

Lariam is a drug whose side effects impair the user's ability to report those side effects (being able to accurately identify feelings of confusion means that you probably aren't that confused). The side effects leave no visible scars, no objective damage. But if Lariam were a car, if psychological or neurological side effects were as visible as broken bones, it would have been pulled from the market years ago.

Sunday, August 11, 2013

WASHINGTON, DC – Following President Obama's speech today to the Disabled American Veterans National Convention in Orlando, Fla., Chairman Miller released the statement below.

"Although I commend President Obama for taking the time to personally address the challenges facing today's veterans, the president's speech was notable for what he didn't say. The president made no reference to the oft-cited 2015 goal the Department of Veterans Affairs has set for ending the disability compensation claims backlog, even though he is the only person with the power to make sure VA lives up to its word. He did not pledge to ensure VA and Department of Defense cooperation in developing a joint integrated electronic health record, even though there is near universal agreement such a step would help shrink the backlog. And finally, the president did not mention a problem that is contributing to the backlog as well as an emerging pattern of preventable deaths and lapses in care at VA medical centers across the country: VA's well-documented lack accountability for failing executives. As commander-in-chief, President Obama is the only person in a position to hold DoD and VA leaders directly accountable, and his leadership and personal involvement is essential to solving these problems." – Rep. Jeff Miller, Chairman, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs

Thursday, August 08, 2013

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel unveiled the findings of a DOD Strategic Choices and Management Review that built three potential budget scenarios to reduce defense spending by $150 billion, $250 billion and $500 billion over the next 10 years. All three budget reductions would be on top of a $487 billion cut in defense spending that was mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

With only eight weeks left in the current fiscal year and no budget deal in sight, we urge you to contact your members of Congress and demand they pass a budget agreement when they get back to Washington.

The stakes could not be higher.

An uncertain budget climate:

Impacts readiness.

Hurts the troops and their families.

Tells our enemies that America's political leadership can't get its priorities straight.

Along with smaller military pay raises and reduced allowances are plans to shrink the active Army to as low as 380,000 soldiers and the Marine Corps to as low as 150,000. Other budget-cutting options noted included reducing the number of carrier battle groups from 11 to eight, and retiring aging Air Force bombers and other aircraft. All of this could have been avoided had Congress just done its job and passed a budget agreement!

Contact your legislators today! Demand that they pass a budget agreement as soon as they return to Washington in September. Tell them their partisan failure to reach a budget agreement weakens the country, impacts readiness, and hurts our troops and their families. Tell them it is the responsibility of our nation's leadership to work together to replace the mindless and irresponsible policy of sequestration. It is unworthy of the service and sacrifice of our nation's men and women in uniform and their families.

Wednesday, August 07, 2013

WASHINGTON (Aug. 6, 2013) – The Department of Veterans Affairs has launched an awareness campaign and a new website, www.va.gov/aca, to let Veterans know what the Affordable Care Act means for them and their families. Veterans receiving health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs will see no change in their benefits or out-of-pocket costs when portions of the Affordable Care Act take effect next year.

"VA wants all Veterans to receive health care that improves their health and well-being," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "If you are enrolled in VA health care, you do not need to take any additional steps to meet the health care law coverage standards. If you are not enrolled in VA health care, you can apply at any time."

"VA encourages eligible Veterans who are not enrolled in VA's health care system to take advantage of the world-class care we provide to the men and women who have served this Nation in uniform," Shinseki added.

For information about VA health care and the Affordable Care Act, VA encourages Veterans and family members to visit the new website at www.va.gov/aca, or call 1-877-222-VETS (8387), Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. or Saturdays from 11a.m. to 3 p.m., Eastern time. The new website includes aHealth Benefits Explorer, where Veterans can learn about the benefits they can receive if they enroll in VA care.

WASHINGTON (Aug. 6, 2013) – The Department of Veterans Affairs, in collaboration with other federal agencies and commercial partners, is hosting the National Veterans Small Business Conference from Aug. 6-8 at the America's Center Convention Complex in St. Louis.

"VA is committed to bringing more Veteran-owned small businesses into a public-private partnership to help them grow and succeed," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "This event is a unique opportunity for Veteran-owned small businesses to connect directly with government procurement decision makers and business partners."

This is VA's premier government event designed to help Veteran entrepreneurs compete for -- and win -- new business.

By attending, Veteran-owned business owners will have the one-of-a-kind opportunity to connect directly with representatives from nearly 30 federal agencies. This year's event also includes 30 commercial companies that are committed to expanding their supply base with Veteran-owned businesses.

Among the businesses participating are Ford Motor, Lockheed Martin, and Pfizer. Government participants include the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Agency for International Development and the State of Missouri.

Participants will receive information, tools, tips, techniques and how-to instructions to start, build and expand a small business into a life-changing reality. Veterans will be able to attend hundreds of training courses. Networking opportunities include business requirements sessions, networking roundtables, receptions and over 400 exhibits at the two-day expo.

Finally, Veterans will learn about getting the Veteran-owned business certification needed to compete for federal contracts, outreaching to veteran communities, and targeting networking to discuss government procurement and contracting requirements.

Contractor growth rates are down as the U.S. emerges from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. However, contracting for service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses is increasing at an annual growth rate of 15 percent.

There are 26 million small businesses in the United States. Of these, 3.6 million are owned by Veterans and service disabled Veterans. They employ over 1.8 million workers and generate over $1.6 trillion in revenue. VA assists Veteran-owned businesses with everything from small business start-ups to large defense contracts.

Saturday, August 03, 2013

New VFW National Commander Bill Thien is asking the more than 1.9 million VFW and Auxiliary members to demand that their members of Congress get to work and pass a budget agreement. Congress is on recess in their home offices through Labor Day, which means an agreement must come by September 30 in order to avoid drastic budget cuts within DOD that hurt military readiness and personnel. Defense Secretary Hagel unveiled the findings of a DOD Strategic Choices and Management Review that was built around three potential budget scenarios to reduce defense spending by up to $500 billion over the next 10 years, which is in addition to $487 billion in spending cuts already mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011. The VFW is asking all veterans' advocates to contact their legislators today and demand action: Failing to reach a budget agreement is not an option. Click here to Take Action. Click here for the VFW Press Release.

House Clears Veterans' Bills

On Thursday, the House VA Committee cleared an array of VFW-supported legislation, including a bill that requires VA discretionary programs to be funded a full year in advance. Currently only medical care is provided an advance appropriation. Ranking Member Mike Michaud (D-ME) said the bill would remove VA programs from the threat of funding gaps often caused by the government being run by continuing resolutions. The VFW testified in support of the bill (H.R. 813) earlier in the year as an assurance that veterans continue to receive access to timely care and benefits, and are insulated from the current fiscal uncertainty. The committee also advanced seven other bills with amendments that included provisions from around 34 other bills designed to improve programs for veterans and their families. We are awaiting confirmation on all the amendments enacted and will provide details next week.

Congressional POW/MIA Hearings

The VFW attended two congressional hearings this week in the wake of the release of an official GAO report and an unofficial internal assessment that was critical of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command. At issue is the "Road to 200," which refers to a requirement levied by Congress in 2010 for JPAC to begin identifying 200 or more MIAs by the year 2015, which is more than double their current annual totals. The process, coordination and duplications of effort between the two largest components of the Full Accounting Community—JPAC and the Defense POW/MIA Office—were common to both House and Senate hearings. The author of the unofficial assessment, which was produced by a JPAC ORISE Fellow and sensationalized by some news media, testified in the House subcommittee hearing, but his work received little attention in the Senate. More hearings are planned and the VFW will be attending them.

The VFW Joins VA for Health Technology Demo

On Tuesday, your VFW was on hand at the National Press Club for VA's demonstration of the new technologies transforming the way VA hospitals deliver healthcare to veterans. Recent innovations in information sharing, communication and treatment are helping to ensure that veterans are receiving quality, cost-effective care when and where they need it. Learn more about the demonstration, which included a live telehealth link with a veteran in Portland, Ore.

Senate Discusses Military Financial Protections

The Senate VA Committee held a hearing this week to discuss financial protections for those serving in the military. Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about his concerns regarding violations against service members protected by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA. He noted his disappointment with the mortgage lending industry that is still failing service members by not properly reducing their mortgage interest rates while allowing improper foreclosures. The VFW has testified on these improper practices and has encouraged the committee to increase consumer education within the veteran's community. For witness statements or to view the recorded webcast, visit the Senate VA website.

Field Report: The ND VFW Joins Veterans' Roundtable

Leaders from the North Dakota VFW recently joined Sen. Heidi Heilkamp for a roundtable discussion on veterans' issues in Grand Forks, N.D. For highlights of the roundtable, click here.

Congress in Recess – Time to Mobilize Advocates

This weekend, legislators are traveling back home for the August district work period to meet face-to-face with their constituents. This means that now is the perfect time for VFW advocates to reach out to their members of Congress and Senators to discuss critical issues facing the military and veterans' communities. If you seize the opportunity to advocate over the next five weeks on behalf of our nation's veterans, and you want to share your story, we can help spread the word through the VFW Capitol Hill blog. This fall, once Congress returns, your VFW will make a full-court press to advance veterans' initiatives in Congress like securing critical funding for the U.S. military, passing in-state tuition for student-veterans, securing advance appropriations for all VA funding, improving sexual assault prevention policies within the military and access to treatment for victims, protecting military quality-of-life programs in the National Defense Authorization Act, and working to expand veterans' caregiver benefits. To learn how you can become involved during the recess, click here.

Korean War MIA Identified

The Defense POW/MIA Office announced the identification of remains belonging to Army Sgt. 1st Class Joseph D. Steinberg, 31, of San Francisco. In February 1951, Steinberg and Battery C, 15th Field Artillery Battalion, were part of the Support Force 21 in a major offensive near Hoengsong, South Korea, when they were overrun. Steinberg and over 100 men were taken as prisoners, and his fate would not be learned till long after the war. Read more.

As always, we want to share your advocacy stories on the VFW Capitol Hill blog. To share your stories, fill out our online form or simply email photos and stories directly to vfwac@vfw.org.

Diamant filed the request in April when a Channel 2 Action News investigation first exposed federal reports that blamed mismanagement by hospital leaders for at least three mental health patient deaths.

For months, powerful Washington lawmakers have demanded accountability and called for heads to roll.

"People need to be fired over this," said Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Georgia.

Tuesday, Diamant traveled to Washington, D.C., to ask the VA's undersecretary for health, Dr. Robert Petzel, what he thinks.

"There are many ways to hold people accountable besides the loss of jobs, and believe me we are holding the appropriate people accountable," Petzel said.

Which is why Diamant requested the personnel files of the former acting director and now associate director for patient and nursing services, Sandy Leake; Associate Director Thomas Grace; Assistant Director Sheila Meuse, and the chief of staff, Dr. David Bower.

While very heavily redacted, the documents show there is no record of any disciplinary actions over the patient deaths, which sources said would be in their personnel files if any had been taken.

But Diamant did notice plenty of pay hikes and performance awards.

Diamant previously reported on two still-unnamed hospital workers who got letters of reprimand in their file.

It's a discrepancy Petzel may be forced to explain at a Senate field hearing in Atlanta next week.

"We'll wait till the field hearing and see how this evolves, and I'm looking forward to it actually," Petzel said.

In response to what Diamant found, House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller sent a statement, calling it "more outrageous proof of the department's widespread lack of accountability" and saying, "The fact that VA leaders in Atlanta and elsewhere across the country are being rewarded rather than punished for their incompetence is downright shameful."

About Me

Veterans Advocate and Past Chairman of American Cold War Veterans. Veteran of
the US Army 1989-1991. Served overseas in Southwest Asia for 17 months with the
528th USAAG during the Gulf War. 100 percent Service Connected Disabled Veteran also a member of VFW Dept NY Post 53 , NY Post 001 American Legion, DAV Robert P Illig Post #47.

About Me

This material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of veterans issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use'of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of
the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.